- Published
- 02 February 2021
- Journal article
The impact of COVID-19 on systemic anticancer treatment delivery in Scotland
- Authors
- Source
- British Journal of Cancer
Abstract
Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on systemic anticancer therapy delivery (SACT) is crucial to appreciate the short- and long-term consequences for cancer patients and plan future care. Here, we report real-time national SACT delivery data from NHS Scotland. We demonstrate an initial rapid reduction in patient attendance of 28.7% with subsequent rapid recovery following service redesign. The smallest decrease was seen in breast cancer (19.7%), which also had the most rapid recovery and the largest decrease seen in colorectal cancer (43.4%). Regional variation in the magnitude of impact on SACT delivery was observed, but nadirs occurred at the same time and the rate of recovery was similar across all regions. This recovery reflected a coordinated national approach and associated patient and clinician support structures, which facilitated the creation of COVID-19-protected areas for SACT delivery in Scottish cancer centres enabling rapid sharing of successful and innovative strategies. The data show that these actions have limited the disadvantage to cancer patients.
Rights
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Cite as
Baxter, M., Murphy, J., Cameron, D., Jordan, J., Crearie, C., Lilley, C., Sadoyze, A., Maclean, M., Hall, P., Phillips, A., Greger, A., Madeleine, J. & Petty, R. 2021, 'The impact of COVID-19 on systemic anticancer treatment delivery in Scotland', British Journal of Cancer, 124, pp. 1353-1356. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01262-8